Oklahoma has moved to secure its head football coach for the long haul. The university announced that Brent Venables has agreed to a new six-year contract that will keep him leading the Sooners through the 2031 season.
The new deal will average roughly $10.5 million per season. That pushes Venables into the top tier of college football’s highest-paid coaches, ranking 10th nationally and sixth in the SEC. That’s a substantial jump from the $7.25 million annual value of his original six-year contract signed before the 2022 season, and from the $8.65 million he was projected to earn in 2026 before this extension.
Venables was hired as Oklahoma’s 23rd head coach in December 2021, taking over after Lincoln Riley departed for USC. Overall, his record is 32-20 with the Sooners. However, his tenure has followed a boom-and-bust rhythm: a rocky 6-7 debut in 2022, a 10-3 bounce-back in 2023 (Oklahoma’s final year in the Big 12), another 6-7 stumble in 2024 during the program’s first SEC season.
Last year was Venables’ best season with the Sooners. Oklahoma went 10-3, finished 6-2 in SEC regular-season play and earned its first College Football Playoff berth since 2019. As the No. 8 seed, the Sooners hosted a first-round playoff game at Owen Field for the first time in program history before falling to Alabama.
Before taking the top job at Oklahoma, Venables spent years as a defensive coordinator. He worked under Bob Stoops at OU starting in 1999, then at Clemson from 2012 onward. During his time at both programs, he has been part of eight national championship game appearances. He won titles with the Sooners in 2000 and with Clemson in 2016 and 2018.
Defense was the calling card of that resurgence, fitting for a coach who built his reputation as a defensive mind. Oklahoma’s unit ranked among the nation’s elite last season. They finished sixth in yards allowed and seventh in scoring defense, while leading the country in both tackles for loss and sacks per game.
Oklahoma enters the 2026 season with real expectations, ranked No. 10 in the AP preseason poll. The extension shows the level of faith that Oklahoma has in Venables. Now he just has to put everything together on the field.
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